Vague inclosures

Abstract

The paper starts by arguing that sorites paradoxes are inclosure paradoxes, and therefore require the same sort of solution as other inclosure paradoxes, notably the paradoxes of self-reference. It then puts forward such a solution. Tolerance conditionals are argued to be material conditionals, and sorites arguments fail because of the failure of detachment for such conditionals. Soritical arguments show that a contradiction occurs somewhere down the length of the sorites statements, though they do not locate where. The final part of the paper considers higher-order vagueness, and argues that it is essentially the same as extended paradoxes of self-reference, to be handled in the same way, by constructing a single “soritically closed” language.